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20 INTERPRETATIONS OF NATURE. 
bridges of adamant, which bear to and fro the messen- 
gers of light and radiant heat with the rapidity of 
thought. 
We know, therefore, that a cosmic medium—called. 
ether—exists because of certain definite effects produced 
by its agency; but, beyond this, the real mystery re- 
mains. 
If, therefore, reason is able to establish as a material 
fact something which cannot be observed by the senses, 
and which is known only because certain physical phe- 
nomena cannot be explained without its agency, there 
is nothing ‘‘absurd”’ in deducing from the facts in na- 
ture the existence of an intelligent, creative power in 
the universe ‘‘in whom we live, and move, and have our 
being.” This deduction is a lawful product of reason, a 
legitimate postulate of philosophy, when the evidence 
of an intelligent power, as manifested in ‘‘design in na- 
ture,’ is fully analyzed. 
Such has been the general belief of man, although en- 
tertained as an article of faith rather than as a convic- 
tion established by evidence. 
When, therefore, modern science, by its discoveries, 
readjusted the relation of things, and revised the inter- 
pretation of phenomena, it forced faith from its ancient 
moorings, and disturbed thereby the SONI of 
thought and of belief. 
In the confusion and uncertainty naturally attending 
this readjustment of theories and beliefs, some there 
were who. bounded the possibilities of truth by the nar- 
row limit,of their conception of things; and assumed— 
for they could not prove—that matter and physical 
foree—unconditioned—were the only agencies required 
in the evolution of worlds and life. 
This is a philosophical absurdity, because, in alleging 
self-existence, causation and beginning are denied, 
which is unthinkable. 
